On getting lost and finding yourself: 5 things about ‘Sakaling Hindi Makarating’

Traveling seems to be all the rage right now. With everyone posting their own travel photos, and going crazy over seat sales, it looks like everyone wants to escape and explore. But not everyone has the luxury to do that, right?

Well, Sakaling Hindi Makarating, a film that successfully showcases the beauty of our country will surely temporarily fill your longing to get lost and intensify it at the same time.

Cielo, a strong willed woman, rediscovers herself after a heartbreak. She left her comfort zone to follow the trail of the hand-illustrated postcards sent to her by an anonymous M. In this journey, she hoped to find love. In the end, she found something greater.

Here are five things you probably didn’t know about the newest ~feels~ film that will soon hit the cinemas:

1. The whole film was shot in only 17 days, in 5 provinces. More than a moving on and finding yourself kind of film, Sakaling Hindi Makarating is an ode to the beauty of the Philippines, as it features Zamboanga, Siquijor, Marinduque, Pagudpud and Batanes.

This film will surely wake up the wanderlust in you, but the traveling didn’t come easy for the cast and crew. In Batanes, they had to take a bath and do stuff in pitch black darkness since ‘lights out’ in Batanes is very early.

Alessandra de Rossi also revealed that they had to travel even when there was a raging storm. “Napatanong talaga ako, ‘tuloy pa ba tayo?’ kasi bumabagyo talaga tas baha na sa amin. Sabi tuloy daw, eh ‘di go!” Alessandra shared to the press. It was all good, though: this aforementioned storm resulted in a wonderful rainbow scene in the film.

2. But it took 5 years to make. After a 9-year-relationship that ended abruptly, Director and Writer Ice Idanan started making Sakaling Hindi Makarating. “I remember being stuck in my room, for three days, just writing. I lock myself in the room, I start typing, and I type until I think of nothing,” Ice shared.

She originally wanted to submit it to Cinemalaya, but didn’t push through. Instead, she submitted it to countless other film festivals and script development grants. It failed to make the cut. “CineFilipino ‘yung last straw ko. Luckily, we made it.”

Sakaling Hindi Makarating became one of the entries for CineFilipino 2016 and won 1st Runner-Up for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Sound Design and Best Musical Score.

3. JC Santos was almost cut off from the film, and was supposed to be replaced by Jericho Rosales. Because of conflicting schedules, JC Santos was almost replaced by Jericho Rosales. “Actually, tinanggap ko na na mapapalitan ako since nag-conflict yung schedule ko.Sabi ko okay lang, ganun naman talaga eh. Pero thankful ako kasi pinaglaban ako ni Direk,” JC said. A blessing, really, because JC Santos was amazing and perfect in the film!

4. Director Ice Idanan wrote the character of Cielo with Alessandra de Rossi in mind and hand picked the rest of the cast. Director Ice Idanan originally wanted herself to play the lead role, Cielo. “Gusto ko kasi talagang maging artista,” she shared. But after meeting Alessandra for a different project, she instantly saw Cielo in her and continued writing the script with Alessandra in her mind.

As for the rest of the cast, she is proud to have hand picked all of them. “JC had a very interesting profile picture on Facebook so I messaged him talaga if he wanted in, kaso ‘di niya ko pinansin so I had my producer to look for him,” Ice shared to MB Life.

As for Pepe Herrera, she shared that Pepe volunteered to be in the film. Ice then gave him lines to read and she instantly knew that they already found their Paul. “Lahat sila, parang binigay sa ‘kin and I’m very lucky kasi bawat isa sa kanila talaga they have their strengths na talagang lumabas sa film,” Ice shared.

5. A prequel is currently in the works. The cast and crew was pretty secretive about it, but they did confirm that the prequel is currently in the process. “Malayo pa ako [laughs] sobrang layo pa. Like I said, Sakaling Hindi Makarating took 5 years so malayo pa.” She also revealed that the prequel is actually a big chunk of the film’s script that they didn’t shoot. “Andun na siya sa film script, kaso hindi na siya na-shoot so yun yung gusto namin i-remake.” Exciting!